Roleplaying
by Leareth
Summary: Subtitle: 'A Gentlemanly Conversation Take II'. An accident that under any other circumstance would be most amusing puts Tsuzuki in grave danger, and Hisoka must team up with the most unlikely and undesirable allies to rescue him. Set after Closed Doors.
1. Prologue

Roleplaying**   
By Leareth**

  


Prologue

No one takes chickens seriously. How can you? They squawk, they can't fly, they're only good for eggs or dinner, and they have that funny way of walking that just says, 'LAUGH AT ME.' For all you know, chickens probably snicker behind their feathers at each other. No one takes a chicken seriously – except the chicken himself.

Gushoushin Elder sat – perched, rather – on a very tall stool in front of a laptop computer typing away with a dedication that would have done Tatsumi proud. It wasn't aware of the comical sight it made (a chicken with a hat and clothes and a laptop computer? Anthropomorphism is almost frightening. No one wants a chicken to take over their desk-job); its attention was completely on the data scrolling on the screen at its claw-tips. This was only if you discounted the portion of its brain that was grumbling away like a starving stomach.

" … stupid food-scoffing walking disaster shinigami go and destroy the library and give me so much work to do and make me reorganise the entire database _again_ …"

It sighed, dreaming for a moment about hundreds of perfect rows of shelves with perfectly stacked books organised in the most perfect of systems. Realising its attention was wandering, the chicken-like shikigami shook its feathers and attacked the keyboard with a vengeance and much grinding of beak. File after file was called up, skimmed through and saved with others of the same topic; general reports, accounts, private personnel profiles, classified cases –

Gushoushin paused, frowning. Had it just read the same thing over again? No, this was a different file, but the details were very familiar. Where had it read it before? Calling up history, it went through what it had just done previously. Finally locating the past file, it compared it with the current one. Two completely separate incidents, but the events and complaints were almost the same. What's more, both had the symbol in the top corner indicating that the case was still open.

Most intriguing. You come across a lot of interesting irrelevant tid-bits when doing research. Shrugging, Gushoushin saved the two case files together and resumed his work. It managed to do a lot before it ran into yet another case with the same facts as the last two.

First time is chance, second is coincidence. A third time is a conspiracy. What about a fourth or fifth, or even a sixth? Out of curiosity, Gushoushin did a search for similar cases. It came up with seven. It stared at the screen. After grumbling about chance and fate for a few minutes, it sat down to read through them. It didn't take long. What took long was the thinking about what all of this meant.

There really was only one thing to do. Printing out all the reports, Gushoushin flew off to find the department Chief forgetting to shut down the laptop. Chickens are rather absent-minded.

Behold, the Void @ 


	2. Chapter One

Roleplaying**   
By Leareth**

  


Chapter One

Hisoka looked searchingly into the shadows of the warehouse. There wasn't much to see, just the usual empty crates and bales that they had been walking about in for the last half an hour. "Nothing here," he called out.

Tsuzuki appeared from behind a stack of boxes and sighed. "Not a peep out of this end. Can't we go home?" he said plaintively, idly kicking loose bits of concrete.

"Don't do that, Tsuzuki-san," said another voice disapprovingly. Tatsumi stepped from the very back of the warehouse. The expression on his face told Hisoka that the secretary hadn't had any luck either. "You'll scuff your shoes."

Tsuzuki immediately stopped. "Sorry," he said with an embarrassed smile. He kept it until Tatsumi finally capitulated with a smile of his own.

Hisoka watched them for a moment, satisfied, before resuming his search. Things had quickly returned to normal after Tsuzuki's discharge from the hospital over a fortnight ago, with one minor difference. Tatsumi was still his usual controlling, tight-fisted self, but Hisoka, and probably Watari as well, had noticed a little softening in his attitude as of late. Especially when it came to Tsuzuki. Tsuzuki, too, seemed more at ease with his old partner. Hisoka thought it was good for both of them – and about time as well. It was good for everyone. 'Life' in Meifu had settled down, run on as normal (saving the occasional disagreement between friends) and everyone actually had a break.

Peace and relaxation could only last so long, though, for the Shokan Division, and so it was that the three of them were scrabbling around in a warehouse, tipped off by the Gushoushin that they should find – what?

Hisoka frowned as he poked his head into yet another boring storeroom. "Tatsumi-san, what exactly are we looking for?"

"Use your discretion," the reply floated back. "Anything out of place, anything out of the ordinary." Tatsumi's voice became louder as he stepped into the room behind Hisoka. Outside, Tsuzuki was curiously poking about in a crate. "All Gushoushin was able to say was that there were several reports of people dying around this area yet apparently their bodies were still alive."

Hisoka blinked. "That doesn't make sense. Are we looking for zombies or something?"

"Zombies? Wa~ah, scary!"

Hisoka was suddenly knocked over as a Tsuzuki-puppy crashed into the room and glomped him. "Gerrof!" he yelled.

Off-side, Tatsumi sighed. "Tsuzuki-san, you're making enough noise to wake the dead."

The comment only caused Tsuzuki to cling even harder to Hisoka. The boy-shinigami rolled his eyes. "So how come you're here with us, Tatsumi-san?" he asked, ignoring the puppy-tail swishing by his ear.

"Prevention of property damage. We have enough repair bills as it is."

Tsuzuki whimpered. Hisoka looked at him, then looked at Tatsumi. He believed Tatsumi's excuse about as much as he believed that Watari would succeed in his sex-changing potion.

Finally shaking Tsuzuki loose, who went and latched onto Tatsumi for reassurance about the zombies, Hisoka wandered off to the corner and looked up. There was a skylight there, framing a few stars against the midnight blue.

A few stars, and the shadow of a man's head and shoulders.

Hisoka frowned. "Hey," he called out to the other two shinigami. "There's someone up there."

Tsuzuki blinked. Tatsumi came over to stand next to Hisoka and look up. "Where?"

Hisoka pointed above. "There."

Immediately there was a scrabbling sound from the skylight and the shadow disappeared. Tatsumi's eyes narrowed behind his glasses. There was the sound of footsteps on the roof, running quickly away from the skylight in a diagonal direction. Just when the footsteps reached the wall of the room the three shinigami were in, Tatsumi gestured.

The roof collapsed. There was a yell. Lots of metal and bricks fell down. Hisoka, having had an idea of what Tatsumi was going to do, already had his shield up; a few meters away, Tsuzuki yelped and hastily did the same.

"Geez, Tatsumi, and you said you were here with us to prevent property damage!"

Tatsumi smirked. "This place is abandoned," he called out above the crashes. "We won't owe anyone anything."

Hisoka sighed. The dust had settled, and the three of them walked over to see who or what Tatsumi had caught. They blinked.

In the middle of the rubble a young man lay sprawled on his back. A very young man. Seventeen years old, jailbait material along the lines of Hisoka young man, with black hair and brown eyes. Well, his eyes would be brown if it weren't for the fact that they were dilated and swirly at the moment, and the fact that he had gold-colored contact lenses. His hair wasn't black either, at least not at the moment. The only reason they knew it was black was because of the black roots in the copper-dyed hair. In the usual tradition of adolescent-Japanese, he had tight black pants, a tight mesh-woven shirt, a black silver-studded collar, and laced-up black boots. Platform black boots.

Tsuzuki was the first to speak. "Ano, Tatsumi …" he said slowly, "you just caught a kid." Tatsumi rolled his eyes.

Hisoka inspected him. "He looks like he's on a high," he commented.

By now, the kid had regained some semblance of a cognitive state. He sat up and rubbed his messily styled hair.

"Was that an earthquake?" he slurred. Shakily he looked up. He saw Hisoka. He saw Tatsumi. He saw Tsuzuki. He stared. Then he shook his head and stared some more.

"Hey man," he said to Tsuzuki. His voice was a bit more high-pitched than they had expected with a Kansai accent. "You've got pretty eyes."

Tsuzuki blinked. "Huh?"

Hisoka stared at the kid. "You can see us?"

"Sure!" Somehow the kid managed to get to his feet. "I can see all of ya. I can see the Nii-san with the purple eyes, Mr. Glasses in the Versace suit who looks like he hasn't gotten any –"

"Why you little –!"

" – and I can definitely see you. Pretty boy."

Hisoka twitched. "Look who's talking!"

The kid ignored him and the infuriated glare Tatsumi was giving and sauntered over to Tsuzuki. His platform boots made him about half a head taller than Hisoka, so he could easily look closely into Tsuzuki's eyes.

"Wow," he breathed. "They're real."

Tsuzuki blinked. "Eh?"

"Yeah," the kid said slowly, as if making a decision. He smiled. "You're next."

Tsuzuki blinked again in utter consternation. So did Hisoka. Behind them, Tatsumi twitched.

"Excuse me," the secretary bit out. "Please step away from my co-worker."

The kid raised an eyebrow at Tatsumi. "_Your_ co-worker?"

Hisoka decided, more for the sake of the kid's health than anything else, to change the subject. "Wait a sec, you said that you can see us, right?"

The kid gave Hisoka a withering 'Do I have to repeat myself?' look. The three shinigami stared.

"Don't tell me we have to take him back with us," said Tsuzuki, pained.

"He's probably going to die from a drug overdose," muttered Tatsumi disgustedly.

The kid blinked. "Huh?"

Unexpectedly, there was the sound of footsteps in the corridor. Slow, casual steps, like an approaching menace.

"Well, isn't this a nice party. I'm hurt that I wasn't invited."

Muraki stepped into the room.

The three shinigami froze. Hisoka's eyes widened. Tsuzuki looked like a deer caught in headlights. Tatsumi's face was hard, and the shadows around them began to stir. The kid blinked. Muraki smirked. 

Strangely enough, it was Tsuzuki who found his tongue first. "What are you doing here?" he whispered.

The sensei turned to him with a suggestive twinkle in his eye and whipped out a rose from somewhere. Tsuzuki immediately backed away in fear, and Hisoka could sense memories that Tsuzuki had finally put away surfacing again. Hisoka's hands clenched into fists in simmering but impotent anger.

Had Tatsumi's eyes been daggers, Muraki would be dead several times over by now. "If you know what's good for you, you'll cease your harassment of Tsuzuki-san immediately and leave," he bit out, every word dripping threat.

Muraki shook his head with a dark smile. "Oh, I don't think so. I want to pick up what I came for."

Tsuzuki turned pale and edged further away. Muraki chuckled, twirling the rose between his fingers. "Actually, believe it or not, Tsuzuki-san, I wasn't actively searching for you. You're an unexpected bonus. No, I came for him."

He pointed the rose at the kid. 

Hisoka's eyes bugged out. "What the hell do you want with him?" he demanded. Muraki being Muraki, an answer immediately provided itself to Hisoka and he turned bright red. "If you're going to –"

Muraki turned and looked at Hisoka as if he were a fly. "Still making a nuisance of yourself, boy?" he asked disdainfully. "Before you all start jumping to erroneous conclusions, I want him for the same reason I suspect the JuOhCho does." He smirked. "Though I didn't quite expect him to be so alluring."

Hisoka resisted an urge to be sick. The kid looked at all of them, bewildered. There was a long, tense silence.

Muraki sighed. "This is certainly a cold reception. At the very least, I expected something better from you, Tsuzuki-san. After all, we did –"

A shadow suddenly leapt up from the floor at Muraki's face. The doctor immediately dodged, then turned to face his attacker with a sigh.

"Tatsumi-san, I thought we've gone through this already." He raised one eyebrow suggestively. "I take it you haven't gotten anywhere?"

Tatsumi ignored the comment, though Hisoka was sure he could hear teeth grinding. "You're still walking. It offends me." Behind him, Tsuzuki was staring at Muraki with wide, frightened eyes. Tatsumi raised a hand threateningly and the shadows curled around it. "Kurosaki-kun, get Tsuzuki-san out of here."

The kid kept twisting his head to look at everyone. "What the hell?"

Hisoka grabbed Tsuzuki's hand and pulled him away. Being caught at Ground Zero between the shadow-master and the psycho doctor wasn't going to be good for their health. Seeing the gawking kid, he took hold of his arm. As he made contact, Hisoka froze.

The kid looked quizzically down at the hand on his arm, then at Hisoka. "What's with you?"

Hisoka shook his head free of the strange reading. This kid was definitely not what he seemed, but if he got killed in the crossfire that was about to start they wouldn't be able to find out what. He began to run, pulling Tsuzuki and the kid. Tatsumi and Muraki were facing off and it looked bad. "Come on!" 

* * * * * * *

Tatsumi didn't bother to turn and make sure the others were out of the way. He trusted that Kurosaki-kun would take care of everything and keep himself and Tsuzuki safe. Besides, he had a beating to administer.

Opposite him, Muraki smiled. "Tsuzuki-san's looking better. Has he been sleeping well?" Tatsumi ignored him and twined a shadow about his fingers. Strangulation sounded good. Muraki smirked and continued. "I assume so. One wonders why …" He raised one eyebrow at the shinigami. "Have you been tiring him out?"

Tatsumi lifted his head. His eyes were burning.

"I warned you."

The shadows on the floor exploded out. Muraki laughed and leapt out of reach, snapping his fingers as he did so. A three-headed hydra manifested itself and reared up, spitting out a gout of flame as it did so. Tatsumi smirked as he deflected the blast into the wall where it exploded.

He was going to enjoy this.

* * * * * * *

Hisoka yanked Tsuzuki and the kid (who kept looking back to gawk) behind the dubious shelter of some crates as debris came flying towards them. He ignored the kid; Tsuzuki was moving woodenly as if in a daze. Hisoka made him sit on the floor and shook him. "Tsuzuki?" he said worriedly. Damnit, if Tsuzuki were to relapse into those nightmares he and Tatsumi had just exorcised … "Tsuzuki!"

Thankfully, consciousness returned quickly to the amethyst eyes. Tsuzuki jumped as Hisoka laid a hand on his shoulder, then let out a shuddering sigh. "I'm alright, Hisoka."

"You sure?" Hisoka knelt beside his partner, taking hold of his shoulders and looking straight at him. The emotions roiling beneath his hands were shaken and unsettled, but centred. It said more than Tsuzuki's reassuring smile ever could, and Hisoka sighed in relief.

"Whoa …" The two shinigami turned to see the kid standing watching the various explosions and monsters and shadows at the end of the warehouse (the walls had collapsed). "This is better than any anime!"

Hisoka and Tsuzuki sweatdropped. The kid turned and flashed them a grin and a peace sign. There was a dull boom.

"Oi," cautioned Hisoka as the kid started to step out from behind their shelter. "Don't go out there; you'll get hurt." Beside him, Tsuzuki muttered something about property damage and hypocrisy.

"So?" The kid inched out further, watching in fascination as the shadow nearest to him warped and twisted. "Dying's no prob with you two here. Though I'm more inclined to go with Nii-san than you. You're a cute kid and all, but seriously, what are you, sixteen? Been there, done that. Sick of being jailbait. Nah. I think Nii-san will do very well this time."

Hisoka and Tsuzuki stared. The flames cast a flickering light that danced demonically on the kid's face. "Who are you?" Hisoka demanded.

The kid slowly turned to face them. He smiled. Evilly.

That was all the warning Hisoka and Tsuzuki got before the kid flung a sizzling power bolt at them.

* * * * * * *

If there was one thing he was going to do tonight, Tatsumi swore to himself silently, he was going to rip Muraki's tongue out. After trading blows and reducing the immediate area around them to rubble the doctor had started talking again, and it was _really_ getting on his nerves.

"Nasty, very nasty," said Muraki, shaking his head as he nudged the battered corpse of one of his summoned monsters with his foot. "You're definitely trying to kill me this time."

"How observant of you," replied Tatsumi. "Though I do hope you'll put up more of a fight than before."

Muraki chuckled. "If I recall correctly, last time you were rather . . . incensed. It was quite fun." He raised a suggestive eyebrow at the shinigami. "Shall we continue from where we left off?" In answer, a shadow lashed out at the doctor, cutting into his arm. Muraki looked disdainfully at the blood staining his white coat. "I take it no. Is it because you've been getting what you want? No wonder Tsuzuki-san looks happy."

Tatsumi simply gave Muraki a look of coldest ice. "You don't understand anything, do you."

"What is there to understand?" Muraki leered. "Tell me, Tatsumi-san, does he still cry when you –"

Another shadow, another laugh. Tatsumi gritted his teeth as Muraki dodged and stepped up his attacks. Anger is most welcome ally.

* * * * * * *

"Look out!" Tsuzuki shoved Hisoka down and threw himself on top of him as the crates blew up and wooden splinters flew everywhere. The air crackled and Hisoka's hair stood up as another bolt came flying. Tsuzuki scrambled to his feet and grabbed Hisoka's shirt, hauling him away as the kid fired off more shots and diving behind a tall stack of bales.

"Aw, c'mon, Nii-san," they heard the kid call out. "I don't wanna hurt ya. And I promise I'll take care of the pretty boy."

Tsuzuki and Hisoka stared at each other. "What's with this guy?" Tsuzuki asked.

Hisoka tried to peek out but jerked his head back as floor concrete shattered barely a foot away. Off in the distance, they could hear more explosions and crashes as Tatsumi and Muraki fought it out. "I'm not sure," said Hisoka. "He felt . . . cold. No, that's not quite it. Like . . ." He trailed off, trying to put what he had sensed into words. "Like a snowstorm. Powerful, cold, and never staying still. Am I making sense?" he asked, feeling stupid.

Tsuzuki smiled at him. "You always make sense, Hisoka."

Hisoka looked away, faintly pink. "The idiot's getting smarter."

Another explosion interrupted them; whether due to another attack from the strange 'kid' or the more dangerous battle further away Tsuzuki and Hisoka couldn't tell. They got their answer as the kid, platform boots and all, walked around the stack to face them. His grinning face was lit up by the bluish-white energy crackling about his upraised hand.

"Ok, now I know why he can see us," muttered Hisoka.

The kid leered. "Hide 'n seek's over. C'mon, Nii-san, just give in."

Tsuzuki's eyes were wary as he and Hisoka stood up in defensive positions. "What do you want?"

The kid gave a cheesy smile. "Your body."

If it wasn't for the fact that Tsuzuki had been through a similar scenario before he would have fallen over and started twitching. As it was, he just twitched. Hisoka raised an eyebrow. Seeing their expressions, the kid laughed. "No, no, not in _that_ way. Though you are pretty enough to take to bed," he added thoughtfully, ignoring the way Tsuzuki was spluttering. "Nah, I just want your body cause it's nice. I want to use it."

The two shinigami blinked. "Huh?"

In answer, the kid threw a power bolt. Caught by surprise, Tsuzuki got knocked into the adjacent wall.

"Tsuzuki!" Hisoka managed to see his partner sit up and rub his head before his attention was called away.

"I don't know what's going on with Mr. Glasses and the rose guy back there," said the kid conversationally, "but I don't really care. I'm just bored and feel like a change."

Hisoka's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

The kid lifted his hand higher. The glowing nimbus about his fingers hummed dangerously. "Live fast. Die young. Find a good looking body."

He shot a bolt at Hisoka. Anticipating the attack, Hisoka had his shield up in front of him. What he hadn't been anticipating was that the kid had aimed above him.

"HISOKA!" yelled Tsuzuki. Too late; the pile of bales Hisoka had his back against wobbled, then toppled. The boy-shinigami was lost to sight as they crashed about and on top of him.

"That's gotta hurt. Pity, he was cute," Ignoring his handiwork, he turned and smirked at the furious look on Tsuzuki's face. "Your turn."

Tsuzuki seethed, trying to judge whether Hisoka was safe and sound without success. As if he didn't have enough to worry about already; the far end of the warehouse was glowing a dull orange now with flames and he hoped that Tatsumi was doing all right against Muraki.

__

Muraki . . .

He quickly shoved the memories away. It was past, he had dealt with them, Hisoka, Watari and Tatsumi had helped him, it was over.

Besides, he had much more immediate things to worry about. He eyed the kid in front of him warily. The kid smirked, then raised his hands.

Tsuzuki stared as a greenish light began to flicker about the kid's body, pulsating with a muted sound as if it had a heartbeat. It quickly grew in intensity and size until Tsuzuki had to put a hand in front of his eyes.

"Don't worry, Nii-san," he heard the kid say darkly. "This won't hurt a bit."

The throbbing sound seemed to double, as if it had developed an echo that was just out of synch. It grew faster and faster until it was racing. Tsuzuki forced himself to look up just in time to see a coruscating ball of spell-energy shooting directly towards him.

Tsuzuki didn't hesitate. If there was one thing about himself that he had full confidence in, it was his powers. He drew three ofuda out of his sleeve, his face hard. Whoever this kid was, he had hurt Hisoka, and that meant he was going _down_.

He flung the ofuda into the path of the spell. The kid's eyes widened as he realised that his intended target had teeth.

"Oh, _shit_."

That was all he could say before the two spells collided. However, instead of an impressive explosion as expected, Tsuzuki's ofuda sent the kid's spell hurtling off towards the back of the warehouse. _Then_ it exploded. Most impressively – and dangerously. The shockwave rumbled through the floor.

Tsuzuki ran over to where Hisoka was groggily rubbing his head and helped him to his feet as the roof above them began to let out some very unhealthy noises. "You okay?" he demanded.

The boy-shinigami winced a little as he touched a tender part of his scalp, but apart from that easily stood up. "I'll manage."

Offside, the kid was staring in absolute disbelief at the destruction his spell had done. "Wow," he commented. "That's the first time it's ever done _that_."

Hisoka blinked as he followed the kid's gaze. "Uh, Tsuzuki . . ." he said slowly. "Just where did you deflect that spell?"

"Huh?" One arm around Hisoka, Tsuzuki turned to look. Only then did he realise that the sounds of fighting from that end of the warehouse had stopped, leaving only the crackling of flames. He turned pale.

"Tatsumi?"

More flames.

"TATSUMI!" Forgetting about the kid, Tsuzuki dashed off towards the fire, Hisoka hard on his heels. Above them, the roof began to drop bits and pieces of itself. They ran faster until they were forced to stop and look.

The place was a mess, which was putting it mildly. There was burning debris everywhere and what walls that were left standing had angry holes in them. Hisoka wondered just how much of the destruction was caused by Tsuzuki, and how much were Tatsumi and Muraki's. He decided he didn't want to know.

Tsuzuki ignored the dangers and frantically began searching for his friend. Hisoka took the other direction. "Tatsumi-san!"

"Tatsumi! TATSUMI!"

It was Hisoka who spotted the motionless brown-suited form near the back of the room. "Over here!" he shouted, running towards Tatsumi. The shinigami lay on his side, eyes closed. His glasses glinted a few feet away. Even further away in the shadows lay a body dressed in bloodstained white. Muraki.

"Tatsumi!" Tsuzuki finally arrived, kneeling beside his friend and turning him over. Hisoka didn't need empathy to read how distressed his partner was. "Oi, Tatsumi, say something!"

No answer. Hisoka checked for a pulse – probably needlessly, as shinigami they couldn't be killed that easily. "It's okay, he's just unconscious," he said reassuringly. Tsuzuki didn't seem to hear him and Hisoka made a mental note to yell at his partner if he started on a guilt-trip. Suddenly he remembered something. "Where's the kid?"

Tsuzuki draped Tatsumi's arm over his shoulders and stood up, not an easy task seeing as Tatsumi was half a head taller than him. "I don't care, we'll deal with him later," he said tersely. "We need to get Tatsumi back home."

Hisoka retrieved the glasses and took Tatsumi's other arm. If it was difficult for Tsuzuki, it was even more difficult for him. Somehow between them they managed to lift the unconscious shinigami. They had just made their way to the nearest exit – a gaping hole in the exterior wall that looked as if it had been made by a huge knife – before Hisoka paused. He wasn't sure what made him look back, but he did.

"What about Muraki?" he asked slowly, gazing at the other body through the flames. The doctor looked dead, but seeing as Muraki was supposed to have died three times beforehand he wasn't betting on it.

Tsuzuki's eyes were cold, and he kept looking forward. "Leave him."

Hisoka didn't argue. The warehouse was big and well built, and the fire had only just started. If someone came to save Muraki in time, he was saved. If not . . . well, the shinigami weren't going to be particularly unhappy about it.

* * * * * * *

The first thing that Tatsumi became aware of as he slowly climbed back to consciousness was pain. It wasn't bad, just a lot of soreness around his chest, but pain was still pain and it was annoying. 

He seemed to be lying on a bed. Next question; where was the bed? The last thing he remembered was breaking off as he was about to punch Muraki in the face and looking up to see _something_ coming straight at him. Putting that together with the bed, and he concluded that he had been knocked unconscious, then Tsuzuki and Hisoka had picked him up and taken him home, or to the hospital. Since the room he was in was rather quiet, Tatsumi decided that he was at home.

He wondered how long he had been knocked out for. If his body was still injured, it couldn't have been a long time. Yet if he was in his bed, at home, in Meifu, he had been out for quite a while. And if his body was still hurting, that meant he must have been injured more than he first thought. If he had been injured that badly, then why wasn't he in the hospital?

Something wasn't making sense. Tatsumi decided to get up and find out. He opened his eyes. He found himself looking at the ceiling.

It was a completely foreign ceiling.

Carefully, he sat up. The room he was in wasn't his room, nor was it any room he knew. The décor was completely traditional Japanese, tatami mats and all. The screen doors were open revealing a garden in the same style. He had to squint a little; he didn't have his glasses on. And there was something else wrong with his vision . . .

"About time you woke up."

Tatsumi froze. That voice . . .

Slowly, he turned around. He froze. The person sitting behind him lifted an eyebrow.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" asked Oriya Mibu. "Aren't you going to thank me?"

Tatsumi stared. Then his brain started working again.

"_You!!_" He scrambled out of the bed – futon – and to his feet. Oriya looked startled. "What am I doing here?" Tatsumi demanded. "What's going on?"

Oriya blinked. "What do you mean, 'what am I doing here'?" he asked. "Isn't it obvious?"

Tatsumi glared. "No."

Oriya took the pipe he was smoking out of his mouth and gave him a Look. "Y'know, usually when someone rescues you from a burning warehouse and bandages you up you're supposed to be grateful."

Tatsumi's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean? Where's Tsuzuki-san?"

The sword-master glared. "Are you _still_ going on about Purple-Eyes?" he said in exasperation. "Fine. If you really must know, I don't know where he is. I assume he and his friends went home. Happy?"

Tatsumi stared. Tsuzuki-san and Kurosaki-kun had gone back to Meifu and left him? "You're lying."

The exasperated look became even more exasperated. "You know I never lie to you. Personally I think you'd ought to be thankful they just left. Considering what you've done to them I wouldn't have been surprised to find you gutted instead of knocked out."

"What _I've_ done to them?!" Tatsumi glared and pushed hair out of his eyes. It was much longer than what he was used to wearing. "Don't you mean what your perverted friend has done?!"

Oriya stopped. He stared. Suddenly he grabbed the sheathed katana lying beside him and whipped it out, pointing the tip at Tatsumi's throat.

"Alright," Oriya bit out. "Who are you and what have you done with Muraki?"

Tatsumi tried not to flinch. Having a sword-point just underneath your chin is always disconcerting. "What do you mean, 'who am I'?" he retorted. "You've met me before, you know damned well who I am."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't." The sword-tip pressed closer. "Where's Muraki?!"

"Why are you asking me? He can be dead for all I care! I swear, the next time I see that hentai's face I'll –"

Oriya stared. Something in the man's eyes made Tatsumi fall silent. Suddenly, the katana was lowered and sheathed. Oriya grabbed Tatsumi's arm and dragged him to where a mirror was hanging on the wall. Tatsumi spluttered.

"Get your hands off of me you –"

Oriya shoved him in front of the mirror. His face was unreadable, and he spoke one word.

"Look."

Tatsumi glared at him, about to shout something about being ordered about, when he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror.

He stared in shock.

Muraki's face stared back at him.

It took a moment for Tatsumi to find his voice. Then,

__

"WHAT THE HELL?!?"

* * * * * * *

"I think he's waking up."

"About time."

"Tatsumi?" 

Something wasn't right.

"Tatsumi, you okay?"

Something definitely wasn't right.

"Stop bugging him, you stupid puppy."

"Sorry. Tatsumi?"

Slowly, Muraki opened his eyes. He blinked as he saw his company. The Brat, the crazy blond shinigami and Tsuzuki sighed in relief.

"Finally." Tsuzuki smiled at him. "You're okay."

Muraki stared. The sight of Tsuzuki actually _smiling_ at him was amazing. Plus it gave him even more sex appeal.

The smile was also the first thing that confirmed for Muraki that things weren't quite what he expected.

"What, no hello?" Muraki turned his head – he was in what was apparently a hospital bed – to find the blond shinigami glaring at him. "You've had us worried sick, y'know."

"Leave him be, Watari-san," said the Brat. "Are you alright, Tatsumi-san?"

Muraki mechanically nodded. Hair fell into his eyes in a different way then he was used to; he lifted a hand then paused. His hair was light brown.

"Tatsumi?" Before Muraki could react, Tsuzuki leaned over and placed a hand on his forehead with a concerned expression. "Are you alright?"

Muraki didn't answer. He was having too much fun looking down the open collar of Tsuzuki's shirt.

At the end of the bed, the Brat glanced at the clock. "It's getting to the end of break, we'd better head back before Konoe-san sends someone to look for us."

"Oops, yeah, he was saying something about a meeting." The blond shinigami stood up and gestured to Tsuzuki. "Oi, Tsuzuki, let's go, you can coddle Tatsumi later."

Tsuzuki looked away from Muraki's eyes, mouth open in protest, then he saw the Brat giving him a Look. "Fine, fine, I'm coming." He moved away from Muraki and joined the others at the door before turning back with a wave and a smile. "I'll bring some cake back for you, Tatsumi!"

Muraki could only nod at this. Things were beginning to make sense, as strange as it were. 

The Brat, the blond shinigami, and Tsuzuki left. They shut the door behind them.

Slowly, Muraki eased himself out of bed. This was definitely a hospital of some sort, and as a hospital doctor he knew the general layout. He made his way to where the equipment was kept. He found a mirror and lifted it to see his face.

Rather, Tatsumi's face.

Muraki gazed into the mirror for a long time. Then he put it down. His blue eyes turned to the door through which Tsuzuki had gone.

He smirked.

"This will be . . . fun."

Behold, the Void @ 


	3. Chapter Two

Roleplaying**   
By Leareth**

Chapter Two

Oriya sighed and relit his pipe. He was getting dizzy watching 'Muraki' pace the room up and down like a caged tiger. At least he wasn't yelling anymore. "Sit down, you're going to wear out my tatami," he said in exasperation.

'Muraki' glared and kept pacing. Oriya rolled his eyes.

It had taken a while for things to calm down and when it did, Oriya had managed to at least get a handle on what had happened. After a bit more screaming he had figured out that the person currently walking around in Muraki's body was the shadow-master of the JuOhCho. Any respect Oriya might have had for him (not that he truly respected anyone) disappeared very quickly as he watched the shadow-master try and deal with the crisis. It wasn't impressive, to say the least.

"Oi." 'Muraki' glanced at him. "Unless you're planning on re-breaking those ribs and dying of a punctured lung, you're not going anywhere. Sit down before you hurt yourself."

For his thoughtfulness, Oriya was rewarded with another glare. "How can you expect me to be calm in this situation??" 'Muraki' demanded.

"I don't expect you to damage my friend's body, that's for sure." Oriya took a puff on his pipe. "You have any idea how many times I've had to patch him up?"

"I couldn't care less."

Oriya gave him a Look. "Considering you're walking around in his body at the moment, you should."

'Muraki' glared at him, but seeing the logic of the situation, grudgingly took a seat. As he did so, he winced. Watching 'Muraki's frustrated expression as he registered the pain, Oriya rolled his eyes. "Oh great and wonderful shadow-master, you're _human_ now, in case you haven't realised."

"I _have_ realised that, thank you very much!" 'Muraki' gingerly touched the bandages wrapped around his chest. "I've forgotten how long it takes for mortal bodies to heal."

Now it was Oriya's turn to look angry. "Those broken ribs are your doing, you know that? If you hadn't bashed him up so badly that time you wouldn't be hurting now, so you have no one to blame but yourself."

'Muraki' shot him several daggers worth of glare. "If your friend wasn't a pervert I wouldn't have _had _–" He broke off and froze. His eyes widened. He turned even paler if that was possible. Then he dashed for the door. "TSUZUKI-SAN!!"

"Oi, watch it –!" Too late, 'Muraki' doubled over in pain. Seeing his friend – or more correctly, his friend's body – hurting Oriya immediately leapt to his assistance. He quickly remembered to remedy his thinking when 'Muraki' lashed out at him.

"Get off! I need to get back!"

Oriya stepped back and folded his arms. "You're not going anywhere in that condition."

'Muraki' shot him a killing look from beneath a fall of silver hair. "You don't get it, do you," he bit out. "If I'm in this body that means that Muraki must be in mine, and if that hentai does anything to Tsuzuki-san while walking around in my body I'll –"

"You think I'm any more happy about the situation than you?!" retorted Oriya angrily. "My friend just turned into an anal-retentive freak, how do you think I feel??"

'Muraki' twitched. Then he headed for the door again. Oriya sighed in exasperation. "_Now_ where are you going?"

"Leaving. The company is offensive."

Oriya snorted. "Not that I like yours any better."

'Muraki' turned and glared. "This coming from a brothel owner? Do excuse me while I laugh."

"We all have to earn a living." Oriya folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. "And anyway, how are you supposed to get back to wherever-it-is you come from?"

'Muraki's' eyes narrowed. "What do you mean."

"Well, if you'd get _off_ stressing about Purple-Eyes, it should be obvious. You're a god of death, right? How are you supposed to get back to the afterlife when you're still alive, hmm?"

'Muraki' stared, speechless. Oriya blinked. He had never imagined his friend's face capable of dread before.

* * * * * * *

Konoe sighed, then pulled himself into a more alert state as he heard his office door open. He looked up, about to mildly reprimand whosoever it was that it was polite to knock before entering, then blinked.

"Tatsumi?"

The tall shinigami, who was looking curiously about the room, glanced up at him as if startled at being addressed. Konoe frowned. "What are you doing here, Tatsumi?" he asked. "I thought you were going to be in the hospital for the next couple of days."

Tatsumi looked at him steadily. Konoe began to feel uneasy under that blue gaze. Despite their difference in rank there was no way that anyone would dare call Tatsumi Seiichiro a 'mere' secretary.

"Kacho," Tatsumi said at last. He paused, as if waiting for Konoe to way something. When he didn't, Tatsumi continued. "I thought that I was well enough to be discharged."

"Oh. Uh . . ." Konoe gestured to the papers littering his desk. "So does this mean you're coming back to work already? You don't have to, of course," he said hastily, seeing Tatsumi look at the papers. "I wasn't expecting you back for a couple more days, so technically you're still on leave."

"Is that so?" Tatsumi gave him that unwavering look again for moment before smiling. "Well then, if you don't mind, I think I will take things easy until then."

Konoe blinked in surprise. "Really?" 

"Yes."

Konoe stared. As far as he could remember – and he could remember a long time – Tatsumi had never willingly taken leave before in the whole time he had been secretary. After a few moments of blinking he came to the conclusion that Tatsumi's accident in the mortal realm had affected him more than first realised. The idea of the control-freak with head trauma added up to one thing in the Kacho's mind – LEAVE ALONE. "Alright then," he said aloud. "Uh . . ."

Tatsumi smiled. "Have you seen Tsuzuki-san anywhere?" he asked.

"Tsuzuki?" Konoe frowned. "Well, since it's mid-morning, I'd assume he'd be in the common room where the cake is. I thought you knew that."

Tatsumi's smile grew ever so slightly wider and he turned to go. "Just checking, Kacho."

"What are you looking for him for?" asked Konoe curiously. "He hasn't gotten into trouble again, has he?"

Tatsumi paused. He turned to look over his shoulder at the Chief. For some reason Konoe felt uneasy again. "Tsuzuki-san's fine," the shinigami said, one hand on the door-handle ready to close it behind him. There was a smile on his face that Konoe wasn't sure if he was comfortable with. "Trouble hasn't found him . . . yet."

Before anything else could be said, Tatsumi left the room. Konoe stared after him for a moment, wondering at Tatsumi's too-nice-and-friendly behaviour, before realising that he was going to have to function without a secretary for the next two days and starting to stress.

* * * * * * *

Watari peered critically at the precipitate in the beaker. According to his calculations, when he added in that serum he should have ended up with a clear solution. This resulting chalky-like substance was as far from clear as he could get. Muttering various things best left unheard under his breath, the scientist put the beaker back over the Bunsen burner and flumped onto a stool to sulk. He _knew_ that he was close to a breakthrough. How, he wasn't sure, just call it a scientist's gut feeling. All he needed to get his gender-switching potion to work was time. And money. Always money. The measly grant Tatsumi had allowed him had dwindled to practically nothing now, and another seemed about as likely as pigs with wings. But he was so _close_ –

Watari jerked his head up as he saw a familiar figure passing in front of his lab-door.

"Tatsumi?" He got off his chair and poked his head out into the corridor. "Hey, Tatsumi, what are you doing walking around? Didn't I say that you were supposed to stay in the hospital under observation for a bit?"

The shinigami paused. Then he turned slowly and regarded Watari as if sizing him up. Watari blinked.

"Watari-san . . ." Tatsumi said the name slowly, as if experimenting with it. "I decided to get up and see what was going on."

"Hmph." Watari opened the door further and leaned on the frame. "Well I _suppose_ so, seeing as asking you to stay idle while there's work to be done is like asking Tsuzuki to stay away from sweets. Still," he continued, giving the taller shinigami a Look, "make sure you don't stress yourself, alright?"

Tatsumi smiled. "Of course."

Watari blinked. "What did you just say?"

"Of course."

Watari blinked again. "That's it? 'Of course'? You're not going to say something like the reason you get stressed at work is because of me or Tsuzuki or Terazuma? That's _it_?"

Tatsumi looked surprised. "Well, yes."

Watari stared. Tatsumi was in a good mood. Not only that, an amiable mood. Watari wondered what the occasion was. It wasn't Tatsumi's birthday, it wasn't Tsuzuki's birthday either, it wasn't the end of the financial year, it wasn't Christmas or New Year, and it wasn't a national holiday. There was absolutely no reason for it.

A slow smile began to spread over Watari's face.

"Hey, Tatsumi," said the scientist, pushing the lab-door open a little more to oh-so-subtly reveal the interior, "remember that formula I've been working on?"

He watched carefully as Tatsumi's eyes flicked towards the lab then back to his face. The secretary's expression had turned wary, and Watari knew that he had to tread carefully. Good mood or not, Tatsumi wasn't stupid. "What about it?"

The beaker inside the lab chose this moment to start bubbling and Watari smiled as charmingly as possible. "Remember how I told you the other day how close I was to a breakthrough?"

The wary look became even more wary. "Vaguely."

"Well, you _see_, Tatsumi, I can see a breakthrough taking place really soon, there's just one problem."

"And?"

Watari took a deep breath and wished he had purple eyes for back up. "I need more money."

"Oh. Is that all," Tatsumi turned to go.

"Hey!" Watari looked cross. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

Tatsumi paused and turned back with an impatient sigh. "What do you want me to say?"

Watari folded his arms and glared. "Well, 'Sure, have some more money' would be good."

Tatsumi started walking away again. "Have some more money if you want then."

The scientist blinked. Twice. "Huh? Did I hear you right?"

"You should have." The secretary kept walking.

Watari stared after him. Then, as soon as Tatsumi turned the corner, he did a victory dance. He had no idea what was up with Tatsumi, but whatever it was, it was good for him!

* * * * * * *

Hisoka stopped as he realised who the person walking towards him in the corridor was. He blinked; from what Watari had told everyone, he wasn't supposed to be seeing Tatsumi on his feet until at least tomorrow.

"Tatsumi-san?"

The moment the name left his lips, Tatsumi stopped. He glanced up at Hisoka. The boy-shinigami frowned; was he imagining things or had the secretary's expression become ever so slightly dark?

"Tatsumi-san." Hisoka continued walking until he was within an appropriate conversation distance from the other shinigami. "What are you doing here? Watari-san said that you weren't going to be back at work for a couple of days."

The secretary didn't answer immediately. Hisoka blinked, sensing shields going up. Being as powerful an empath as he was, Hisoka could easily sense anything people around him were feeling, and even though shinigami were far better able to control themselves than normal humans Hisoka still found it difficult _not_ to sense the emotions of his fellow workers. As he had told Watari and Tsuzuki, being caught looking in onto the hearts of people was far, far worse than eavesdropping. It had gotten him into enough trouble while he was alive. So Tatsumi's wariness was understandable. Hisoka, however, found it a little strange. Everyone in JuOhCho trusted Hisoka not to pry into their minds.

"I felt I was well enough to come back," the secretary said at last. "Lying in bed idle is not something I'm comfortable with."

Hisoka nodded. He should have expected it. "That's good. You were unconscious for over a day; everyone was worried. Tsuzuki was so worried he's not going to care if you're going to yell at him as long as you're awake to do it."

Tatsumi gazed at him steadily for a moment, then smiled slowly. "Tsuzuki-san was worried about me?"

Hisoka frowned. The smile was similar to the one that usually heralded a major budget cut, completely different from the gentle and kind expression Hisoka usually associated with Tatsumi when Tsuzuki was the subject of conversation. "Well, yeah . . ." Hisoka gave Tatsumi a sideways glance. "Are you alright, Tatsumi-san?"

The smile got a little wider. Then Tatsumi turned around. "I've never felt better in my life, boy. Do excuse me, I need to get a few things."

Hisoka blinked. Before he could say anything, however, Tatsumi walked away in the opposite direction that he had come. Hisoka stood staring after him for a long time, then remembered that he'd better go fetch Watari to the common room before Tsuzuki ate all the cake.

* * * * * * *

Saya, Yuma, Terazuma and Wakaba all stared.

"Ano . . ." said Wakaba slowly. "Am I seeing this?"

Everybody's heads slowly went Nod nod.

"Those _are_ roses and chocolates, right?"

Nod nod.

"Expensive roses and chocolates?"

Nod nod.

"That _is_ Tatsumi-san holding them, right?"

Nod nod.

Pause. Wakaba rubbed her eyes. "We're definitely all seeing this, right?"

Everyone went Nod Nod again, all wearing identical stunned expressions. Wakaba fell silent, the sight of Tatsumi standing in the doorway with a large bouquet of roses in one hand and a box of chocolates in the other too amazing to allow for conversation. At the common room table, his back to the door, Tsuzuki was happily eating a large slice of strawberries-and-cream cake. As the three girls and Terazuma watched through the window of the adjacent door, Tatsumi silently entered the room behind Tsuzuki. He leaned over Tsuzuki's shoulder, roses and chocolates hidden behind his back, and closed his eyes as Tsuzuki's hair brushed his neck. He smiled.

Saya, Yuma, Terazuma and Wakaba were shocked speechless.

* * * * * * *

Seeing the shadow over his cake Tsuzuki stopped eating and turned around. His eyes widened.

"Tatsumi!" Tsuzuki stood up from his seat, still holding his fork with some cake on it. "You're back!"

Tatsumi smiled. "Hello, Tsuzuki-san. Did you miss me?"

"Of course!" Tsuzuki's face was innocently happy, then he remembered his manners. "Uh, do you want some cake?" he asked, gesturing to the cake with his laden fork.

"Hmm." Tatsumi's free hand came up to hold his chin thoughtfully as he looked between the cake and Tsuzuki. Suddenly, he smirked. "I think I will."

Before the startled Tsuzuki could react, Tatsumi grabbed his hand and ate the chunk of cake on his fork.

* * * * * * *

Terazuma's jaw dropped. "What did he just –"

The three girls glared at him, delicate fingers over their lips. "Shh!!"

Terazuma shut up.

* * * * * * *

Having finished the morsel, Tatsumi brought the flowers and chocolates out into the open. "I heard that you were worried about me," he said softly. "These are for you."

Tsuzuki blinked. "Me?"

* * * * * * *

Four pairs of eyes blinked in stunned disbelief.

* * * * * * *

Tatsumi smiled disarmingly. "Of course, Tsuzuki-san. They go well with your eyes." He placed the bouquet into Tsuzuki's stunned arms then lifted the box of chocolates. "You like these, don't you?"

Tsuzuki, who had been staring a little apprehensively at the roses, lighted up at the confectionary. "Oh wow! Really just for me?"

"Just for you." Tatsumi opened the box and picked out a caramel cup. "Here."

* * * * * * *

Four pairs of eyes boggled as Tatsumi held the chocolate before Tsuzuki's lips. "Is that really Tatsumi?!" asked Saya in disbelief.

Footsteps were heard in the corridor behind them; too engrossed in the show none of the members of the group-huddle by the door turned around. If they had, they would have seen that Hisoka and Watari were frowning at them.

"Hey, what are you guys all looking at?" asked Watari curiously. 

To his and Hisoka's surprise, everyone turned around with fingers over their lips. "Shh!!"

Watari and Hisoka blinked. "What's going on?" asked the boy-shinigami in a more hushed voice.

Wakaba giggled. "Look, Hisoka-kun! Tatsumi-san is feeding Tsuzuki-san chocolates!"

"Huh?" Intrigued, Hisoka and Watari joined the spying huddle. 

* * * * * * *

"Try this one." Tatsumi picked out a hazelnut swirl. "Say 'ah'."

Tsuzuki, puppy ears and all, smiled charmingly and complied, letting Tatsumi pop the chocolate into his open mouth.

* * * * * * *

Watari's glasses slipped off his nose. "You have _got_ to be kidding me."

Saya and Yuma held hands over their mouths stifling squeaks of laughter. "Aren't they cute?"

Wakaba turned shining eyes onto her partner. "Ne, Hajime-chan, I want to be fed chocolates too!" 

Terazuma turned red and muttered something about having no money. Hisoka looked uncomfortable.

"Uh, should we be watching this?"

* * * * * * *

Inside the common room, Tsuzuki turned towards the closed door. He blinked. Was that someone whispering? "Ano, Tatsumi . . ." he said slowly, forgetting about chocolates for a second. "Did you hear something?"

Tatsumi stepped _very_ close and leaned over him. "Hear what, Tsuzuki-san?" he said softly.

Tsuzuki frowned and squinted at the door's window. He was concentrating too hard to notice the close proximity of the other man. "I don't know, I thought I heard –" He broke off as Tatsumi laid a hand flat on the table on either side of him, effectively trapping him. Tsuzuki stiffened. "Uh, Tatsumi?"

"Yes, Tsuzuki-san?"

Tsuzuki looked up into the other man's face – and froze.

* * * * * * *

On the other side of the door, the hands stuffed into various mouths were made useless as shock rendered everyone speechless.

Hisoka was the first to regain use of his tongue. "Watari-san . . ." he said slowly, "are you sure that letting Tatsumi-san out of hospital while he's still recovering from head trauma was a good idea?"

Watari's glasses were fogging, so he removed them and wiped them on his coat. "I didn't. He walked out himself. You really think I'm going to try and stop him?"

"Of course not." Saya and Yuma giggled. "No one stops Tatsumi from doing anything."

"Including that?" said Terazuma dryly, pointing to the couple in the common room.

Wakaba, one finger placed thoughtfully on her lip, was staring intently. "I didn't know Tatsumi-san had a thing for Tsuzuki-san," she commented.

Watari folded his arms and looked wise. "Oh, he does. I just didn't think it went that far."

"Maybe his near-death experience made him realise what he's missing?" said Saya.

"He's already dead," Hisoka pointed out.

* * * * * * *

Meanwhile, Tsuzuki was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable trapped between Tatsumi and the table. It was the same kind of uncomfortable he got whenever Muraki had hit on him. But this was Tatsumi. It didn't make sense . . .

"You know, Tsuzuki-san," whispered Tatsumi, his blue eyes fixing Tsuzuki's violet ones in a gaze that refused to let him go, "I was right. Red goes with your eyes so well. I can see it on your face."

Tsuzuki wondered if he was hearing things again, or if his heart actually was racing that fast. "R-really?"

"Yes." Tatsumi smiled. For some reason that smile brought up bad memories for Tsuzuki. "You're blushing. Most adorably, I must say."

Tsuzuki turned an even deeper shade of red. "Oh . . ." was all he managed to say.

Tatsumi smiled and leaned even closer if such a thing was possible. "You know something else, Tsuzuki-san?" he murmured into the younger shinigami's dark hair. "You . . ."

* * * * * * *

"I never knew Tatsumi-san could be this smooth," commented a wide-eyed Wakaba as the secretary lifted a hand to trace down one side of Tsuzuki's cheek. She, like everyone else (except Hisoka, who was probably getting more than enough unwanted information from any unshielded persons through his empathic senses), had her ears and face pressed as closely as possible against the door's window trying to catch what was being said in the next room.

" . . . are good enough . . ."

Saya and Yuma stared and wished they had brought a camera as Tsuzuki's eyes began to flutter shut. "Is Tatsumi going to –?"

" . . . to make me . . ."

Hisoka had his arms folded and was pointedly looking away, face pink. "We _really_ shouldn't be watching this, guys . . ."

" . . . want to . . ."

Watari's eyes bugged out as he saw that Tatsumi's face was getting _very_ close to Tsuzuki's. "Don't tell me they're really gonna . . ."

" . . . eat y–"

Terazuma was making gagging sounds. "**_EAT?!_**"

Too late, Watari slapped a hand over Terazuma's mouth. The girls squeaked as they realised that show inside the common room had abruptly halted.

Then, out of the silence, there was the sound of footsteps. Slow, dangerous footsteps. The six spies trembled in their shoes.

The door swung open with a loud and scary creak.

Tatsumi stared balefully down at the group and turned them all into mice.

"Don't you people have work to do?" he said icily.

Freeze, cower. Suddenly everyone found excuses to be somewhere else.

"Well, would you _look_ at the time!"

"Oops, I think I left a beaker boiling bye!"

"I ah, need to return a book to the library."

"Mustn't slack, must get back to work!"

In record time, everyone had disappeared.

'Tatsumi' smirked. Then he turned back to the common room only to find that Tsuzuki, flustered and confused, had taken the chance to slip away.

* * * * * * *

At least he was outside this time, thought Oriya to himself. He leaned on one of the veranda pillars and chewed the end of his pipe as he watched 'Muraki' – or, rather, the anal-retentive control-freak of a shadow-master as he had dubbed him – pace the garden. Oriya was a little miffed; he had designed the garden personally and was very proud of it, but the control-freak had barely spared it a glance.

"Y'know, it's weird seeing you this nervous," he commented.

'Muraki' spun around and fixed him with a glare. "I. Am. NOT. This. Bastard."

Oriya sighed and turned away. "Fine then. Be impolite. I _was_ going to tell you about a possible idea to help get everything back to normal but I take it you don't want to hear it."

"I don't."

"Sure?'

"Yes."

"Really sure?"

"YES."

"Really, really sure?"

"Why are you so eager to help me?"

Oriya glared. "Look at whose company I'm stuck with. That should say everything."

'Muraki' twitched. Oriya raised an eyebrow. "So have you got any ideas yourself, oh great and wonderful shadow-master? You've been pacing long enough."

Silence. Oriya watched 'Muraki' grit his teeth. "What's your idea," the control-freak bit out.

"Please."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Say please."

'Muraki' glared. He muttered something under his breath.

"What's that? I didn't hear you."

'Muraki' twitched. "JUST TELL ME YOUR DAMNED IDEA PLEASE!"

Oriya smiled. "Well, since you asked so nicely." Flicking the ends of his kimono out of the way he sat down on the steps and puffed on his pipe, gathering his thoughts into order. "Now let's see . . ." He looked up at 'Muraki'. "You shinigami go investigate any strange or unusual supernatural happenings in the world, right?"

'Muraki' nodded warily.

"Well, every time that you – I mean, _Muraki_, causes trouble, the boy and Purple-Eyes turn up, right?"

Another nod. Oriya grinned.

"How do you feel about causing some property damage?"

* * * * * * *

Hisoka thought that after yesterday, short of treating everyone to an expensive dinner all costs to himself, Tatsumi could do nothing more to surprise him. He was wrong.

"Tsuzuki-san." At the sound of Tatsumi calling his name, Tsuzuki turned around curiously. Hisoka watched as unobtrusively as possible from behind his book. All around him, everyone was not-so-subtly doing the same. Word of Tatsumi's courtly behaviour towards Tsuzuki in the common room yesterday had got around, and despite the fact that the workday was ending there were quite a few people in the room waiting for a show.

"Are you doing anything tonight, Tsuzuki-san?" asked Tatsumi, his voice pitched just at that level where it seemed to be a private conversation yet was still audible to the whole room. "I was wondering if you had any plans for dinner."

"Eh?" Tsuzuki put a hand to his head and looked embarrassed. "Well, I was going to have take-out or cook . . ."

Hisoka was glad for the book's cover, so he could gag at the thought of eating Tsuzuki's cooking without anyone noticing.

"Take-out or cooking?" Tatsumi raised an eyebrow. "How dull. Let me take you out."

The low murmuring around the room stopped. There was the expected pin-drop silence. Hisoka forgot to turn the page.

Tsuzuki blinked. "What did you say?"

Tatsumi smiled and took a step closer towards Tsuzuki. "Come out to dinner with me tonight."

All around the room, Hisoka, Watari, Saya, Yuma, Terazuma, Wakaba and any other shinigami who happened to have nothing better to do, strained their ears and eyes as much as possible without seeming obvious about it.

Tsuzuki blinked adorably – and rather cluelessly. Then his amethyst eyes narrowed. "Do I have to pay?"

Hisoka thought he heard a feminine voice hiss, 'What kind of question is that when someone asks you out on a date??' and choked.

Tatsumi's smile became a little wider, rather like that of a cat who's got at the cream. Hisoka wasn't sure if he was comfortable with it. "Of course not, Tsuzuki-san. It'll be all on me."

Several jaws around the room dropped to the floor.

Tsuzuki's face lit up. "Tatsumi's paying? Alright, I'm coming!"

Without warning, Tatsumi grabbed Tsuzuki about the waist and drew him close. Various eyes around the room grew to the size of dinner plates.

"Pick you up in an hour then?" the secretary whispered into Tsuzuki's ear.

Hisoka frowned. There was something awfully familiar about the way Tatsumi was holding Tsuzuki like that . . .

"Uh . . ." Tsuzuki looked a little breathless, but managed to make his tongue work anyway. "S-sure."

Tatsumi smiled. "That's good." Suddenly he stepped away from Tsuzuki and headed for the door. "We have a reservation at Le Palais at seven. Private booth."

"Really?" Tsuzuki's eyes were very wide. "Oh wow! Thankyou, Tatsumi!"

Tatsumi gave one more enigmatic smile over his shoulder before exiting. A few moments of blinking later, Tsuzuki followed. As soon as the two of them were gone the room erupted into babbling.

"Oh my –!"

"Tatsumi-san's taking Tsuzuki-san out for dinner?!"

"A dinner _date_! Get it right!"

"At Le Palais too? Waaah, you know how expensive that place is??"

"And Tatsumi's paying for _all_ of it?!"

"Ne, Hajime-chan, take me out to dinner too!"

"Candle-lit dinner in a private booth . . . how romantic!"

"Tatsumi? Romantic? Those two go together like oil and water!"

"Well, you saw how he's been acting towards Tsuzuki lately!"

"I figure that whack on the head must have been harder than first thought."

Hisoka didn't participate, gazing out the door through which Tatsumi and Tsuzuki had left, wondering why he felt uneasy. The whole affair was good for those two but something didn't feel right. No matter how hard he thought he couldn't put his finger on it. Sure, Tatsumi was acting strange, but as everyone said, head trauma did funny things. And it was pretty obvious that Tatsumi cared for Tsuzuki too. Still . . . Hisoka had never expected Tatsumi to act so . . . Muraki-like?

"Hisoka-san!" The boy-shinigami glanced up to see one of the Gushoushin hovering in front of him. "Kacho wants to see you and Tsuzuki-san in his office right away!"

Hisoka got up. "Alright, tell him I'm coming."

The chicken-like shikigami blinked. "Eh? Where's Tsuzuki-san?"

Hisoka didn't bother looking back. "Gone."

He found Konoe sitting at his desk, as always. The old chief was probably one of the few people left who had no idea what was going on in the office. It was nice to know, thought Hisoka, that some things remained normal.

"Kurosaki-kun." The old man nodded his arrival, then frowned. "Where's Tsuzuki? Don't tell me he's gone home already."

"He has." Hisoka stood almost to attention. "You wanted to see me, Kacho?"

"Mm." Konoe slid a file over to Hisoka. "We have a small problem going on in Kyoto that was just reported in. Apparently lots of buildings are being damaged by some unseen force. Not sure what it is, so I want you and Tsuzuki to take a look."

Hisoka opened the file and squinted at the photos inside. 'Damaged' was an understatement. 'Demolished' or 'destroyed' would be more correct. "Any witnesses or anything?" he asked.

"We did have one unconfirmed report of someone seeing a man in white at one of the sites, _but_," Konoe added with emphasis seeing Hisoka jump to the obvious conclusion, "this is an _unconfirmed_ report and the witness was apparently not exactly sober, so don't assume anything."

Hisoka nodded. "I understand. I'll take care of it."

"What about Tsuzuki?" asked Konoe curiously.

Hisoka tucked the file under his arm. "He has uh, some personal business tonight," he said. "There's no need to bother him, I can handle this by myself."

Konoe raised an eyebrow at the boy-shinigami. "Are you sure?"

Hisoka looked Konoe in the eye. "You picked me personally, remember?" He turned to go. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I _can_ take care of myself if I need to."

Behold, the Void @ 


	4. Chapter Three

**Roleplaying**

By Leareth

**Chapter Three**

Hisoka peered warily into the shadows. Nothing there, just lots of rubble. The concrete and twisted iron made for strange silhouettes against the night sky, and the still-settling dust in the air made him sneeze. Hisoka wished he had brought a torch, but the entire place was under police tape and it wouldn't do to attract attention.

It didn't make sense. Looking at the destruction Hisoka wouldn't have been surprised to hear of casualties, but there weren't any. This incident, like the four others beforehand that he had scouted out, had happened at a time when there were very few civilians around. Nor did it look like anything Hisoka could think of. There were no burn-marks as one would expect from an explosion, no ground zero as in a structural collapse, and it was way too focused for an earthquake. From what Hisoka could tell, it seemed more like the place had been torn apart by gigantic hands that also wielded over-grown machetes.

Hisoka chewed his lip. Apart from the style of destruction, there wasn't anything really connecting the five sites. It was completely random. If he couldn't figure out a common thread it was going to be difficult to predict a sixth incident. He idly nudged a lump of rock into a small crevasse that had opened up in the floor, giving out an exasperated sigh. He _really_ wanted to solve this by himself, he was getting kind of sick of being treated like a kid.

It was at this point that he heard the voices.

Hisoka frowned. The still night air carried the sound quite clearly, and he could distinctively hear that there were two of them. What they were saying, however, was less clear as it rebounded and reflected irregularly off what was left of the walls. It seemed to be coming from the other side of the area. Heart beating faster, Hisoka made his way in that direction as silently as possible. Considering his luck so far, it was probably just a couple of bums squatting in the ruins for a night's shelter.

As he got closer, the conversation got a little clearer.

"I'm pretty impressed," said the first voice. "I didn't expect you to go all out like that. You got a lot of stress to work off or something?"

"Considering the current situation, it should be obvious," the second bit back.

"Ah," the first replied wisely. "You're really not getting any. Sure you don't want to give my establishment some business?"

"SHUT UP!"

There was a crash.

"Oi, watch it! If it wasn't for me you'd still be pacing and stressing your head off doing nothing."

"I haven't seen this plan get any results!"

"Well, you were the one who insisted on demolishing five buildings instead of two. The chances of one of your friends finding us went from one in two to one in five thanks to your enthusiasm. So don't blame me."

Hisoka's eyes widened. He was very close now, just one more corner. The voices sounded rather familiar, but thanks to the laws of physics governing the movement of sound, he couldn't quite place them . . .

"Consider yourself lucky I didn't demolish your so-called 'restaurant' instead!"

"Consider yourself lucky I didn't throw you out!"

"Pimp!"

"Anal-retentive control freak!"

"Destroyer of girls' purity!"

"Sex-starved secretary!"

The shouted insults bounced madly off the rubble. Hisoka took a deep breath, stepped around the corner –

Hisoka's eyes widened.

"YOU!"

Muraki and Oriya froze and blinked. Hisoka mechanically took note of the way the two of them had their sleeves pushed up as if about to engage in fisticuffs, but seeing the man he most hated overpowered any ability to question.

"So it _was_ you," Hisoka bit out. His eyes were burning. "What are you trying to do, lure Tsuzuki here so you can get into his pants again!"

Muraki stared at him in disbelief for another second. Then he took a step towards Hisoka. "Kurosaki-kun!"

Hisoka blinked. Beside Muraki, sheathed katana slung over his back, Oriya tipped Hisoka a wave. "Yo there, kid."

Hisoka didn't hear him as Muraki took another step. The boy-shinigami immediately took a step in the other direction. He was rather surprised as a pained looked passed over Muraki's face. "Don't come any closer!" he yelled.

"Kurosaki-kun." Hisoka blinked. Muraki looked ... hurt? Something wasn't right. And Muraki had never called Hisoka by name ever in his life.

"Oi." Hisoka turned to find Oriya looking at him. "Don't go anywhere, okay, boy? We need to talk to you."

"Like hell you do," Hisoka retorted, crouching into a defensive position as Muraki came closer. His heart was racing, but strangely enough the curse-marks weren't burning like they usually did whenever Muraki was nearby ...

"Kurosaki-kun." The silver-haired doctor stood with his hands held palm outwards in a gesture of peace. "Things aren't what you think. It's me. Tatsumi."

Hisoka blinked. Twice. Then he glared. "What are you trying to pull!"

"I'm not trying to pull anything. It's true." Muraki lifted a hand, and Hisoka stared as shadows curled almost elegantly around the pale fingers. "See?"

Hisoka looked at Muraki suspiciously. "If you _are_ Tatsumi-san," he said, "then how come you went and destroyed all those buildings?"

Was it his imagination or did Muraki look ever so slightly embarrassed? "I had to do something to attract the JuOhCho's attention," the man replied. "This was the quickest way to do it."

Hisoka looked at him, still not convinced. "Give me more proof that you're Tatsumi-san."

Oriya rolled his eyes. "He's stuffy and acts like he has a stick up his ass, what more proof do you need?"

Muraki twitched. A shadow lashed out which the sword-master easily dodged. Hisoka blinked in complete disbelief. He folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at the doctor. "All right. What's the current status of the Shokan Division budget?"

Muraki didn't even hesitate. "In the red with a debt of several hundred thousand worth of repair bills resulting from Tsuzuki-san's destructive activities."

"What's Watari's dream experiment?"

"A gender-switching potion that he wants another grant for."

"Tsuzuki's favourite drink?"

"Tsujiri's powdered green tea."

Hisoka stared. Very, very hesitantly, he reached out and touched the doctor's arm. He stiffened and looked up. Tatsumi gazed at him with sad silver eyes.

Numbly, Hisoka dropped the contact and stepped away. He stared at 'Muraki' and Oriya. "How . . ." His throat was dry so he tried again. "How did this happen?"

'Muraki' sighed. "I'm not sure. It probably has something to do with that case you and I were investigating with Tsuzuki-san a few days ago."

"Whatever it is, I want it fixed." Oriya folded his arms and glared at 'Muraki'. "I've had enough of this jerk."

Hisoka didn't pay any attention as 'Muraki' shot a biting retort back at Oriya, who immediately retaliated with some snide comment of his own. "But if Tatsumi-san's in Muraki's body," he said slowly, "then . . ." He trailed off. He paled.

'Muraki' stopped bickering with Oriya and glanced at him. "What is it, Kurosaki-kun?"

Hisoka's eyes were bugging out. "That means Tsuzuki's gone on a date with Muraki!"

'Muraki' stared. "_WHAT!_"

Oriya rolled his eyes. "Why am I not surprised."

* * *

Tsuzuki was having a great time. Why shouldn't he? Great food, great company, great restaurant. Le Palais was on top of one of the taller hotels of the city, thus commanding a fantastic view of the river at night. It was obviously a very classy – and expensive – place, so Tsuzuki dutifully remembered his manners and ate at a more sedate pace than was his norm. After all, he didn't want to cause his companion any embarrassment. 

"Enjoying yourself, Tsuzuki-san?"

Tsuzuki looked up from his lobster and nodded happily. "Definitely."

Tatsumi chuckled. "I'm very glad to hear that." He caught Tsuzuki's eye and lifted his crystal glass of red wine with a smile. "But we are merely beginning. And it shall only get better."

Tsuzuki blinked. Why did he suddenly feel uneasy?

"More wine, monsieur?"

Tsuzuki nodded absently as the waiter topped up his glass and looked at Tatsumi. The other man raised an eyebrow. "Is there something the matter, Tsuzuki-san? Do eat up before your food gets cold."

"Uh, yeah!"

Obediently Tsuzuki began to eat again. The uneasy feeling had passed.

It was probably nothing.

* * *

"I can't believe Tsuzuki-san would be so silly as to go out on a date with him!" exclaimed 'Muraki' as he and Hisoka ran as fast as they could in the direction of the restaurant. 

"He thought it was you asking him!" Hisoka protested.

"Well, I still can't believe that Tsuzuki-san accepted!"

Hisoka raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Can you two shut up and run!" snapped Oriya, following just behind. His kimono flapped about him giving the impression of a butterfly with a sting.

"Why are you coming with us?" asked Hisoka.

"You think I'm going to let you two go get Muraki without me? Someone has to make sure he comes back in one piece."

'Muraki' scowled at Oriya's sword. "How do you expect to get into a five-star restaurant with a katana?"

"Walk."

* * *

Dessert came at last, a large slice of rich fruits-of-the-forest cake so moist it seemed to melt on the plate. Dark glazed cherries gleamed like black pearls on a bed of thick cream. It was topped off – literally – by generous swirls of chocolate-rum sauce that had been dribbled over it all in aesthetic swirls. Tsuzuki took one look and declared himself in heaven. 

"I knew you would love it," replied Tatsumi. He handed Tsuzuki a silver fork. "There you go."

Tsuzuki took it eagerly, then realised there was only one helping of dessert. "Eh? You're not having one, Tatsumi?"

The other man smiled and lifted another fork. "I thought I'd share yours, Tsuzuki-san."

"Oh." Tsuzuki pushed the cake into the middle of the table. "Can you reach it?"

Tatsumi shook his head. "I have another idea. Why don't you come sit on this side so we can both eat it easily?"

Tsuzuki smiled and scurried to the other side of the booth to sit next to Tatsumi. "That better?"

It was probably a good thing that the booth was lit only by candles and dim wall-lights. Otherwise, Tsuzuki would have seen that the smile on Tatsumi's face was rather evil.

"Much better." Tatsumi scooped up a bite-sized helping of cake and cream and held it before his companion's face. "Open your mouth and close your eyes, Tsuzuki-san."

Tsuzuki blinked for a moment. Tatsumi smiled disarmingly. Slowly, Tsuzuki closed his eyes and let Tatsumi feed him.

* * *

"I'm sorry, sirs, but I cannot let you in." 

'Muraki' glared. "And why not?"

The lobby concierge looked down his long nose at them. "Well, to begin with, we do not allow weapons into this building, let alone the restaurant."

Hisoka raised an eyebrow at Oriya, who had his arms folded and was tapping fingers impatiently. "Walk in, huh?"

The concierge looked at him. "Nor do we allow children."

Hisoka twitched. "Who are you calling a kid!"

"Also, neither the gentleman with the sword nor the child is dressed to enter."

Oriya looked at Hisoka's orange T-shirt and denim, then down at his patterned kimono. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" he asked.

'Muraki', dressed as usual in his white suit, made an impatient sound. "This is a matter of the utmost urgency," he managed to grit out. "If you won't let them through, what about me?"

The concierge stood up straight and looked at 'Muraki' without flinching. "I'm sorry, but you cannot enter either."

"Why not!"

"You don't have an invitation or a reservation. Sir."

* * *

Tsuzuki waited quietly as Tatsumi paid the bill (credit, of course). His head felt a little light; he had probably drunk just a _little_ too much wine, but he wasn't the one driving and Tatsumi would take care of him. So he had nothing to worry about. 

"Tired, Tsuzuki-san?" asked Tatsumi, coming over and putting the credit card away in his wallet.

Tsuzuki shook his head. "Not really."

Tatsumi smiled and placed a hand on Tsuzuki's shoulder, guiding him to the elevators. "Well then, shall we take a walk? It's a lovely night and there's a park nearby."

"Sounds good." Tsuzuki pressed the down button and the light for elevator number four turned on. He smiled up at the other man as the doors opened. "I'd love to take a walk."

"Then let's go." They entered the elevator and Tatsumi pressed the button for the lobby. Then he glanced at his companion and frowned. "Tsuzuki-san."

"Hmm?" Tsuzuki blinked adorably.

"You have chocolate sauce on your face."

"I do?"

Tatsumi smiled and stepped up against Tsuzuki. "Here," he said softly. "Let me get that off for you."

Tsuzuki couldn't move. His heart beat faster as Tatsumi lifted a hand to his cheek.

The elevator closed. The glowing numbers went down.

* * *

Hisoka slammed the call button. When no elevator responded immediately, he frantically slammed it several more times. Finally, the light for elevator number two winked on. 

"Hurry!" he yelled to 'Muraki' and Oriya, who, having bowled past the spluttering concierge, were a few rapidly shrinking meters behind. As soon as the startled old couple inside stepped out Hisoka jumped in, then face-faulted at the fifty or so knobs before him.

"What level do I press?" he demanded as 'Muraki' and Oriya joined him.

"Top floor," replied Oriya immediately.

Hisoka gritted his teeth. "It would _have_ to be the top floor," he muttered under his breath as he punched the highest button.

The elevator closed. The glowing numbers went up.

* * *

In the lobby, the doors for elevator number four slid opened. After a few moments, Tsuzuki stepped out. He looked a little flushed, and he was smiling. Tatsumi kept pace just behind him, his expression soft. 

"Pleasant evening, sirs?" asked the concierge as they passed. The man seemed to be rather irritated about something, but, being as well trained as he was, it was difficult to tell for sure.

Tatsumi smiled. "Oh, very." Beside him, Tsuzuki happily nodded in agreement.

The concierge nodded. "Shall I call your car for you?" he asked.

"No need." Tatsumi gently pushed Tsuzuki towards the doors. "We'll take a walk first then come back for it."

"Very good, sir."

* * *

"Messieurs, I must insist on you leaving at once!" 

'Muraki', Oriya and Hisoka ignored the irritated head-waiter and tried to search out the restaurant without attracting too much attention. Their caution was rather useless; curious as to the interruption of their meals, the various patrons were whispering and pointing. It should be noted that most of the pointing came from feminine fingers.

Hisoka stood on tiptoe and tried to scout the restaurant tables. "I can't see them."

'Muraki' gritted his teeth. "Don't tell me they've left already?"

Hisoka turned to the irritated waiter. "I'm so sorry, but this is very important," he said as calmly as possible. "We're looking for two friends. One of them is tall with blue eyes and glasses. He would have been accompanying another man dressed in black with dark hair. I know they had a reservation for seven o'clock, could you possibly tell me where they are seated?"

The waiter glared. Hisoka gazed at him with large emerald eyes.

Finally, the waiter sighed. Sometimes being an eternal kid had its advantages. Either that, or the man had seen Oriya put his hand oh-so-subtly on the hilt of his katana. "Your friends finished and left already," he said.

"Are you sure?" pressed Hisoka.

The waiter looked as if he was beginning to lose whatever patience he had left. "If you mean the gentleman dressed in brown getting romantic and intimate with his purple-eyed companion, then yes, they paid and left not more than five minutes ago. Now if you please, you have no right being here, so you had better leave before I call security."

Hisoka was already stepping away. "Thank you," he said. Then he turned and ran for the elevators again. 'Muraki' and Oriya were already there holding one of the elevators open.

"I can't believe we only just missed them!" 'Muraki' seethed as Oriya hit the lobby button. "They could be anywhere by now!"

"Calm down, idiot," Oriya retorted. "Think – where would Muraki take Purple-Eyes next?"

'Muraki' and Hisoka both shared very tense and worried expressions. "A hotel room?" asked Hisoka nervously.

Oriya shook his head. "Nuh uh. Muraki likes to be a bit more personal." He held his chin in his hand and thought. The elevator pinged and the three of them hastened to get out. They ignored the still-annoyed concierge, who started shouting for security the moment he saw them, and left the building. "Hmm. I'd say it's a toss-up between your and Purple-Eyes' apartment," he said finally.

'Muraki's face darkened. "Our apartments?"

"Uh huh. He has your identity and Purple-Eyes. Question is now, which one do we go to?"

Hisoka and 'Muraki' looked at each other. "He has your keys," said Hisoka hesitantly. "And it's closer."

"Let's start moving then." Oriya turned to go.

"Wait." 'Muraki's voice was tight. "What if we're wrong?"

Oriya shrugged. "Fifty-fifty chance. And if we _are_ wrong ..." he raised an eyebrow at the other two, "I just hope your friend has the sense of mind to play hard to get."

* * *

It was, as Tatsumi had said, a lovely night, if a little chilly. Tsuzuki rubbed at his arms as he hurried in front of his companion towards the observation deck overlooking the river. Once he got there, he completely forgot about the cold. The view was fantastic. 

"It looks like a whole lot of colourful fireflies," breathed Tsuzuki, gazing out over the river to the cityscape beyond. "Fireflies in a dark forest."

Tatsumi came silently up to stand behind him. "The light is all the more beautiful for the darkness, yes?" he asked. At this late hour the park was almost deserted, so it was just the two of them.

"Mm." Tsuzuki rested his arms on the railing and leaned over. "I suppose so." The night wind picked up again, and he shivered.

"Cold, Tsuzuki-san?"

"Just a little."

Tatsumi shook his head disapprovingly. "Who asked you to forget your coat?"

"I didn't know we were going to go walking!" Tsuzuki protested.

A low chuckle. "No, you did not." There was the sound of cloth rustling. "Here."

Tsuzuki turned to find Tatsumi holding his brown trench-coat out to him. "Nah, it's okay, Tatsumi," he said. "You just got out of hospital, I don't want you to catch a cold."

"Hmm." Tatsumi put his coat back on, looking thoughtful. "Well, we can't have me falling sick, and we can't have you shivering like that. I guess we'll have to compromise."

Tsuzuki blinked. "Huh?"

He got his answer when Tatsumi stepped up behind him, opened his coat, and wrapped Tsuzuki in it. Tsuzuki stiffened a little then relaxed, leaning back and resting against Tatsumi. It was pleasant.

"Better?" asked Tatsumi, right by his ear.

"Mm hm." Tsuzuki closed his eyes. "You're being so nice tonight."

"You mean I'm usually not nice?"

Tsuzuki smiled. "Not all the time. At work you're not. Everyone thinks you're mean and scary."

"Is that so?" asked Tatsumi dryly. "Do you share that opinion, Tsuzuki-san?"

"Not really." Tsuzuki kept his eyes closed, enjoying the sensation of warmth around him and the cool air on his face. "You _are_ mean and scary, but only sometimes when you want to be. You're a very kind person, it's just that people don't see that that cause they only see you at work when you're stressed."

Warm breath stirred his hair. "We're not at work at the moment," the other man whispered. "What do you see?"

The question required that Tsuzuki turn around and look. He did so. He blinked.

Tatsumi smiled at him, a strange glint in his eye. Tsuzuki shivered, the memory of the aftermath of a certain poker game flashing by for a moment. Why did he suddenly think of that?

Tatsumi's smile turned ever so slightly enigmatic, and he leaned in for a kiss. Tsuzuki tilted his head up and let his eyes close.

Suddenly, he felt Tatsumi stiffen. Tsuzuki opened his eyes. Without warning the man pulled away leaving Tsuzuki in the wind again. After the warmth of before, the air was very chilly. Tsuzuki shivered.

"Tatsumi?"

No reply. He glanced up about to ask what was wrong. Tatsumi stared at him, an unreadable expression on his face. Only his eyes, a continuously shifting shade of blue, hinted at some inner questioning or conflict. The smile that had been there the whole night had disappeared.

Tsuzuki fell silent.

Suddenly, like the first raindrop on a still pond, the moment broke. Tsuzuki blinked as Tatsumi smiled again. It looked a little forced, but something told Tsuzuki not to ask.

"It's getting late," said Tatsumi. He turned, gesturing for Tsuzuki to walk next to him. "Come on, I'll take you home."

* * *

They pounded up the last of the stairs, already half-afraid of what they were expecting to find. 'Muraki' led them to his door and jiggled the knob. It was locked of course. Hisoka kicked it uselessly. 

"Unless your door opens by saying 'open sesame', hurry up and unlock it," growled Oriya.

'Muraki' shot him a glare, then turned back to the door. He chewed his lip, mentally calculating the most efficient and cheapest method. Finally he took a deep breath and called up a sliver of a shadow that he sent slicing through the lock. Then he kicked the door open.

"TSUZUKI-SAN!"

The apartment was empty.

"DAMNIT!"

* * *

Tatsumi insisted on seeing Tsuzuki to his door, and he did. Now they stood in the hallway in the uncomfortable silence of two people parting after a first date. 

"Tatsumi ..." The one addressed glanced at Tsuzuki, who spoke softly. "Thank you very much. I had a great time."

The other man smiled. "I'm very glad to hear that."

Silence. Tsuzuki tried several times to say something, but couldn't. In the end he just fumbled in his pockets for his apartment keys. Finally pulling them out, he found the right key and put it in the lock, turning it, painfully aware that there were blue eyes on him the entire time.

The lock clicked open. Tsuzuki put his hand on the knob.

Tatsumi put his hands on Tsuzuki's shoulders.

"Can I come in?"

The words were whispered right into his ear. Tsuzuki was sure he could feel that person's breath on his skin. His heart began to beat faster.

"... Okay."

* * *

"There!" 

Hisoka, seeing Tsuzuki's apartment bock finally, forced his very tired legs to hurry up. As a shinigami he could have flown but it wouldn't be fair to 'Muraki', who was looking more and more worried by the second. Oriya he was of two minds about. Hisoka held some grudging respect for the man, but Oriya was still Muraki's friend, and anyone who was a good friend of the psycho doctor was automatically on his 'Do Not Trust' list.

But that wasn't the problem at stake. Right now they had to save Tsuzuki.

They came to the front gate of the apartment block. It was closed, of course. Oriya took one look at it, whipped out his katana, and cut them a way through. Not bothering to pause for rest, the three of them ran for the stairs.

Tsuzuki wasn't quite sure what was happening. Correction; he knew _what_ was happening, he just wasn't quite sure if he believed it. He vaguely remembered getting his door open, vaguely remembered taking off his shoes and trying to turn on the light before arms twined around his waist, vaguely remembered the trip to the bedroom losing his coat and tie along the way, but the actual specifics were rather blurry. It probably had something to do with the fact that he was being pressed back into his futon with his unbuttoned shirt half-off his shoulders. That plus the lips moving just behind his ear.

"T-Tatsu–"

A hand was placed over his mouth, cutting off further speech.

"Don't say that name."

Tsuzuki nodded silently and the hand was removed. As nice as this all was, there was something not right. He knew that Tatsumi cared for him, yes, he knew that Tatsumi was attracted to him, yes, he knew that too, but he also knew that Tatsumi would never, ever do anything to him that he didn't want. So what was going on?

Tsuzuki didn't know. The hands on his skin weren't exactly very conductive to thought either.

But it was Tatsumi, wasn't it? So it was all right ...

* * *

"Which floor!" 

"Top floor, right at the end!"

"Top floor _again?_"

"Shut up and run!"

* * *

For some reason he still had his shirt on, but that didn't seem to matter as the other man trailed fingers and lips down his chest, sending little shivers through Tsuzuki's senses. _Strange_, thought the part of Tsuzuki's brain that was still functioning, _this seems almost familiar ...

* * *

_

Three pairs of feet ran frantically down the veranda.

Things were getting rather interesting now, what with Tatsumi lying on top of him and all. Tsuzuki's heart seemed to be beating very loudly, almost like footsteps pounding on floor –

Suddenly, the bedroom door was thrown open.

"**TSUZUKI-SAN!"**

Freeze.

BLINK.

* * *

In the moment that followed, the reactions of various people were rather interesting. 

Seeing himself in a very compromising position with Tsuzuki, Tatsumi immediately turned an interesting deep red. Then he started fuming. Hisoka also turned into a steaming tomato until he forcefully reminded himself that the man with his hands up Tsuzuki's shirt was not who he looked like. Muraki sighed in disappointment and smirked. Tsuzuki, trapped as he was underneath Muraki, could only blink large amethyst eyes at the three unexpected intruders in his home. Seeing 'Muraki', he turned pale.

Oriya, for his part, sighed and folded his arms. He raised an eyebrow at his friend.

"I thought you would have gotten further than this by now."

Immediately, everyone began to move again.

"Tsuzuki-san!" said 'Muraki', stepping forward one hand outstretched. Tsuzuki, still with his shirt undone, cringed and hid behind 'Tatsumi', who cuddled him close. He grinned at the killing look 'Muraki' gave him.

"Don't worry, Tsuzuki-san," said 'Tatsumi'. It should be noted that he still had one arm underneath Tsuzuki's shirt. "I'll keep you safe."

'Muraki' twitched. "Why you–!"

Tsuzuki whimpered and huddled closer to a very willing 'Tatsumi'. 'Muraki' looked hurt. Oriya seemed greatly amused. Hisoka, relieved to see that apart from maybe the shock and his dignity Tsuzuki was unharmed, sighed and decided it was time to clear things up.

"Tsuzuki." His partner looked up as if startled to see him there. Hisoka pointed to the man whose lap Tsuzuki was sitting in. "That's not Tatsumi-san."

Tsuzuki blinked. "Huh?" He looked at 'Tatsumi' who smiled winningly and ran his fingers through his hair. 'Muraki' looked like he was about to throw a fit. Hisoka rolled his eyes.

"Tsuzuki, that's not Tatsumi-san, and that's not Muraki," he said patiently, pointing to each man in turn. "They've switched bodies for some weird reason. You went out on a date with Muraki; Tatsumi-san's been with Oriya-san the whole time."

"The boy's lying, Tsuzuki-san," purred 'Tatsumi' into Tsuzuki's hair. "Shall I get rid of them so we can continue –"

He broke off. Tsuzuki was staring, first at him, then at 'Muraki', then at Hisoka. Finally, Tsuzuki managed to get his tongue work.

"Hisoka never lies."

Silence. Tsuzuki swallowed nervously. He looked at 'Tatsumi'. 'Tatsumi' was smirking. He looked at 'Muraki'. 'Muraki' looked sad. Tsuzuki's eyes widened. Smirking 'Tatsumi'. Sad 'Muraki'. Hesitantly, Tsuzuki reached out hesitantly to touch the man in white.

"T-Tatsumi?"

'Muraki' gave a small nod. Tsuzuki trembled. Then he freaked.

"WAAAH!"

Tsuzuki glomped onto Hisoka. The boy-shinigami held his badly shaken partner comfortingly and glared green daggers at the shadow-master and the doctor. One of them looked unhappy. The other smirked, unrepentant.

Oriya, who for once had been keeping quiet, saw the smirk. He glared and stepped forward. Then he whapped 'Tatsumi' on the head with the hilt of his katana. "That's for leaving me with that anal-retentive control-freak for so long!"

Hisoka sighed and let Tsuzuki use his shirt as a tissue.

t.s.u.z.u.k.u.

Behold, the Void + doki3 . net / void /


End file.
